JK Tyre-Orange 4x4 Fury Race: Santosh, Shivaraja in the lead after Day 2

Dambuk Valley (Arunachal Pradesh): Bengaluru’s Team Boda of Siddanth Santosh and Lokesh Shivaraja zoomed to the top, displaying exemplary skill and technique as the JK Tyre-Orange 4x4 Fury race completed five stages here on Friday.

On an eventful day at the off-roading event that required drivers to navigate their way into a river, traverse steep hills and overcome several obstacles, Santosh and Shivaraja stood their own even as a few teams failed to complete the required tasks.

The Bangalore Offroad Drivers Association team seemed well on course for a title win with two more stages to be held on the concluding day on Saturday.

The day began with the parallel finish obstacle run that required teams to race to the riverbed, manoeuvre their vehicles in four feet of water and change one tyre. Santosh and Shivaraja, assisted by co-drivers Prithviraj and Sanjay, topped the list with a timing of 9:13.18 minutes. They, however, were later beaten by Boda team mates Pradeep Kumar and Vijay — who clocked 8:48:03 minutes – but their second-place finish in the stage ensured them of the overall lead.

In the afternoon task, teams had a tough time making their way past the tunnel drive — Stage Four — which forced organisers to merge two stages. In this stage (four and five merged), two cars in each team had to race down a hill at 45 degrees and then complete a rough 75 degree climb to complete the stage. Only three of the seven teams could get to the finish.

Defending champions Kabir Waraich and Gurmeet Virdi of Team Gerrari of Chandigarh were second. The duo, who had led after two stages, fell to fourth in the parallel drive and finished third in the merged ‘Winch it 2 Reach it’ stage.

The local team of Ujjal Namshum Chow and Aditya Mein too put up a strong show taking third place.